January 9th, 2010

Boss New Campaign T-Shirts Now Available, In The Sense of We Can’t Really Afford To Give These Things Away Sense of “Available”

by Philip Baruth

Let your mind drift back for a moment. It’s Thursday night, 1976, and you’re going to see the Doobie Brothers at the Utica Memorial Auditorium. You need to make the scene in a t-shirt, yes, but a t-shirt featuring something boldly incomprehensible, an obscure band or a gravel crushing company out on the west edge of town. Something that will mark you as unique, absolutely singular, because no one anywhere else in the auditorium can possibly be wearing the same strange design. And therefore you will shine, in the glow of a thousand cigarette lighters. Beautiful, man.

But of course you could never find that t-shirt, because anything you bought was also bought by several hundred thousand other teens hoping to look special and unique.

You could never find that shirt, until today.

Introducing the limited line of Baruth 2010 State Senate T-Shirts: sleek, affordable, and you can be damn sure that no one else will have one on, no matter where you debut.

We have the horizontal logo and the vertical stacked logo (pictured above), as well as the plain back design or, for the more adventurous, the “Speak Baruth To Power” bumper sticker design splash (pictured below).

Long sleeves, perfect for winter weather, optional. We have black, we have white.

Does the campaign realize even one thin dime from these fine Cafe Press shirts? It does not.

But you help us out by carrying the campaign’s most basic message to your picnic, your sleep-over, your 4th of July parade or final parole hearing.

Click here to visit the campaign store.

Many thanks to Selene Colburn, who masterminded this particular arm of the campaign, and to the Methodikal guys, Mike and Seth, for the designs involved. Hard to go wrong with a design troika like that.

January 7th, 2010

In Which Vermont Daily Briefing Films A Shameless Plug For Beloved University

by Philip Baruth

Along with seeing the Great Wall of China, and lacing up a pair of size 10 Timberland boots to give Joe Lieberman a good running kick in the seat of his Armani trousers, I’ve always wanted to be in a commercial. And a few weeks back, I got my chance: a company called Hello Viking filmed a series of spots for the University of Vermont, spots slated to run during UVM sports events on ESPN and its spin-offs. The director, Tim Brunelle, did Volkswagen’s “Drivers Wanted” commercials back in the day. Enjoy, briefly.